Reid Gregor, Gadir Azza A, Dhir Raja
Canadian R&D Centre for Human Microbiome and Probiotics, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada.
Departments of Microbiology and Immunology and Surgery, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Front Microbiol. 2019 Mar 12;10:424. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.00424. eCollection 2019.
It has been over seventeen years since the scientific definition of probiotics was crafted, along with guidelines ensuring the appropriate use of the term. This definition is now used globally, yet on a consistent basis scientists, media and industry misrepresent probiotics or make generalized statements that illustrate a misunderstanding of their utility and limitations. The rate of discovery of novel organisms with potentially therapeutic benefit for both human and environmental health is progressing at an unprecedented rate. However, the term "probiotic" is often misapplied to describe any microbe with plausible therapeutic utility in the human host. It is argued that strict compliance to the scientific definition of the term "probiotic" and avoidance of generalizations to the whole field of probiotics based upon studies of one product, will help advance the development and validation of microbial therapies, and applications to improve human health.
自益生菌的科学定义及其确保该术语正确使用的指南制定以来，已经过去了十七多年。这个定义如今在全球范围内被使用，但科学家、媒体和行业却一直存在误传益生菌的情况，或者做出一些泛泛的表述，这表明他们对益生菌的效用和局限性存在误解。对人类和环境健康具有潜在治疗益处的新型生物体的发现速度正以前所未有的速度推进。然而，“益生菌”一词常常被错误地用于描述在人类宿主中具有合理治疗效用的任何微生物。有人认为，严格遵守“益生菌”一词的科学定义，并避免基于对一种产品的研究而对整个益生菌领域进行一概而论，将有助于推动微生物疗法的开发和验证，以及改善人类健康的应用。
